Getting your children into gardening

Gardening is a great activity for all ages – it’s good exercise, it gets us outdoors into the fresh air, and if you grow your own fruit and veg, it can be a good way to encourage children to have a varied, healthy diet.

Getting young children involved in the garden is not only fun for them – and a lovely way for you to spend time together – but can be an introduction to a rewarding hobby that will bring joy and relaxation for the rest of their lives.

You don’t need a huge garden. Small gardens can be beautiful and if you don’t have an outdoor space at all, you can get busy growing things in pots and in window boxes instead. If you have no garden at all, you could also try applying for an allotment or other community space.

If you want your child to get involved in digging and planting, it’s a good idea to invest in some child-sized tools. You don’t have to spend a fortune. At this time of
year, supermarkets have lots of ‘outdoor’ toys, and there’s always some little spades, buckets and trowels in amongst the paddling pools and tennis sets.

Smaller tools will be lighter and much easier to handle for your little one and having their own tools will also help your child feel invested in gardening as an activity. The items you most need are a small fork and a trowel, but a small pack of little plant pots can also be fairly cheap and can be filled with your child’s very own plants.

Often, gardening can be all about playing the long game: you plant seeds in spring, and don’t expect to see any results for several weeks or months. But this can be difficult for small children to understand. They can often lose interest quite quickly in something when they don’t see results straight away. That’s why it’s a good idea to choose at least some gardening projects that will wield speedy results for children.

Bean sprouts — These are easy to grow, and it’s done indoors, in a jar or a tray, so
you don't even need a garden. There are lots of different kinds of sprouts, but mung beans are probably the easiest.

Salad leaves — These can be picked and eaten around three weeks after planting. Rocket is a good option, but a packet of mixed salad leaves will provide a mixture so you can see which ones you like the best.

What could be more satisfying to a pre- schooler than growing their very own tree? This is easy to do from an acorn, and don’t panic: you won’t end up with a huge oak tree in your garden unless you’re planning to live a very, very long time!

Collect acorns in early to mid autumn after the first frost. Remove the cups, soak the acorns overnight in warm water and sow in compost. You won’t see results until early spring, but after the long cold winter it will seem like magic to see your own little oak trees appearing.